Three souls, three sisters in the faith of Jesus, were baptized in Haiti, a country on the island of Hispanola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas, in the first week of September 2024, on September 7, 20024, Pastor George Gowie announced, quoted by the Secretarial Department at the IMS on Thursday, September 26, 2024. The three sisters were baptized by Elder Raynold and they received the Lord’s Supper on the same day, Pastor George Gowie added.

Originally inhabited by the Taíno people, the Haiti island was visited for the first time by Europeans in December 1492, during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who established the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad. The island formed part of the Spanish Empire until 1697, when the western portion was ceded to France and afterwards renamed Saint-Domingue. Haiti's sovereignty was declared on 1 January 1804, and today the state that occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, is the third largest country in the Caribbean and the most populous Caribbean country with with an estimated population of 11.4 million.

The moment before the baptism; a photo from the personal archive of  Elder Raynold.

Written by Margarit Zhekov